With the announcement by Prime Minister Gordon Brown that the UK General Election will be held on 6th May, a number of British expats resident in Abu Dhabi may be unsure of their entitlement to vote.

Written by: Dennis Jarrett

Provided you are on the Electoral Register somewhere in the UK, there are two options for overseas voters who are British citizens. First, and least useful, you can apply to vote by post. This requires downloading a form from www.aboutmyvote.co.uk, printing it, signing it (a real signature is required for voting security reasons) and mailing it to your local electoral registration office. A postal voting form will then be sent to whatever address you have specified, including an overseas address.

Obviously it’s unlikely that you will have enough time to receive and return your ballot paper in time – postal votes are usually sent out about a week before Election Day.

So the second option is more attractive: this is proxy voting, meaning that you appoint someone you trust to vote on your behalf.

You can apply for a proxy vote as long as you are on the electoral register. Again, you’ll need to complete, sign and mail the short application form downloadable from www.aboutmyvote.co.uk. You can nominate anyone as your proxy as long as they are eligible to vote in that type of election and they are willing to vote on your behalf.

You send the form (by post, or by delivery service) to arrive at your local electoral services office – usually the local council, checkable via the website – not later than 5pm six working days before the election. By our calculations that’s 28th April, but it depends how you define the period.

Your proxy will then be sent a voting card telling them how and where to vote on your behalf.

A general election is also likely in Australia later this year. Voting is not compulsory for expats, though any Australian citizen aged 18 years or older who goes overseas for a significant amount of time is required to notify the Australian Electoral Commission. There’s lots of information at www.aec.gov.au, where you can also check online whether you’re entitled to vote.

Provided you’re outside the country for more than one year and less than six, you can register as an overseas elector – you’ll need to complete a form to remain on the electoral roll. If you’ve done that, you can vote in person at the Australian Embassy. You could also apply for a postal vote, but obviously there’s no guarantee that the mail will be able to register your vote in time.